Stephen M. Ryan

The Tokyo chapter of JALT and the Mind, Brain, and Education SIG are happy to be co-sponsoring this 4-part series. We hope to expand your knowledge of the interaction of psychology (the ‘mind’ part) and neuroscience (the ‘brain’ part), and their application to teaching (the ‘education’ part).

• Friday, March 11th: David Scott Bowyer and Curtis Hart Kelly:
  • The C Factor: The Overlooked Dynamic in Successful Language Classes
• Saturday, April 16th: Julia Daley:
  • The role of different types of memory in the learning process
• Saturday, May 14th: Amanda Gillis-Furutaka:
  • Music in the brain and how it can aid language learning
• Friday, June 3rd: Stephen M. Ryan:
  • Stories in the Brain . . . and in the Classroom

Stories in the Brain . . . and in the Classroom

Abstract:

Storytelling and education have a long and flourishing partnership. From antiquity to the
present day, the power of stories has been recognised. It is the power to deliver a lesson and
make sure it is not only remembered but learnt.

This presentation examines stories in the classroom from a Brain Science perspective and
explores what lies behind their power to educate: they engage the emotions; they facilitate
the sharing of meaning; they engage the mechanisms of social learning (learning from and for
others); they provide patterned slices of experience; and this in turn support predictions based
on past experience. In other words, stories play to many of the learning strengths of the
human brain.

After a theoretical examination of the factors that lend stories their power, we will then
exchange ideas for harnessing that power in all levels of foreign language learning. Bring your
story-based learning ideas and I will bring mine.

After all, who doesn’t like a good story? And that, my friends, is the point.

Bio:

Stephen M. Ryan teaches at Sanyo Gakuen University, in Okayama, and is active in JALT’s
Mind, Brain, and Education SIG. His growing understanding of the power of stories has seen
him incorporate storytelling into practically every lesson he teaches.